Media effect application

ABSTRACT

Exemplary embodiments relate to the application of media effects, such as visual overlays, sound effects, etc. to a video conversation. A media effect may be applied as a reaction to an occurrence in the conversation, such as in response to an emotional reaction detected by emotion analysis of information associated with the video. Effect application may be controlled through gestures, such as applying different effects with different gestures, or canceling automatic effect application using a gesture. Effects may also be applied in group settings, and may affect multiple users. A real-time data channel may synchronize effect application across multiple participants. When broadcasting a video stream that includes effects, the three channels may be sent to an intermediate server, which stitches the three channels together into a single video stream; the single video stream may then be sent to a broadcast server for distribution to the broadcast recipients.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of and claims the benefit of priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/369,506, titled “MEDIA EFFECT APPLICATION,” filed on Dec. 5, 2016, now U.S. patent Ser. No. 10/554,908, issued on Feb. 4, 2020, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Facial detection technology allows for the detection of a face in a photo or video, and in some cases allows for individuals to be identified based on their facial characteristics. Recently, facial detection techniques have been used to apply overlays on faces, such as by adding a graphical mask over a face in a video.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A depicts an exemplary interface for a video communication.

FIG. 1B depicts an exemplary frame from a video communication.

FIG. 1C depicts an exemplary technique for performing emotion detection.

FIG. 1D depicts an exemplary interface in which a media effect is applied to a user based on a detected emotion.

FIG. 1E depicts an exemplary interface in which a media effect is applied to multiple users based on a detected emotion.

FIG. 1F depicts an exemplary interface for recommending a media effect to be applied based on a detected emotion.

FIG. 1G depicts an example of a drawing applied over a communications interface.

FIG. 1H depicts an example of an audible media effect.

FIG. 2 depicts an exemplary system for automatically recommending and/or applying media effects.

FIG. 3 is a data flow diagram depicting an exemplary exchange of information according to an embodiment.

FIG. 4A is a flowchart depicting exemplary logic for applying a media effect based on a detected emotion.

FIG. 4B is a flowchart depicting exemplary logic for recommending a media effect to be applied in a video communication.

FIG. 5A is a block diagram providing an overview of a system including an exemplary centralized communications service;

FIG. 5B is a block diagram providing an overview of a system including an exemplary distributed communications service;

FIG. 5C depicts the social networking graph of FIGS. 5A-5B in more detail;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram depicting an example of a system for a messaging service;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary computing device suitable for use with exemplary embodiments;

FIG. 8 depicts an exemplary communication architecture; and

FIG. 9 is a block diagram depicting an exemplary multicarrier communications device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

By allowing for an application of a graphical overlay onto a face in a video conversation, communications applications empower users to emphasize or augment certain portions of the conversation. For example, a user may desire to emphasize their current mood through application of a graphical overlay. If the user laughs at a joke, for instance, the user may choose to apply a comedic overlay (e.g., applying a digital mask of a laughing clown). If the user hears a sad story, on the other hand, the user may choose to apply a different overlay (e.g., an exaggerated crying animation).

However, when a user needs to manually apply a graphical overlay, the procedure for selecting and applying the overlay may take some time, and may cause the graphical overlay to fail to align temporally with the user's emotional reaction. Moreover, if a user perceives that it is too difficult to apply a graphical overlay, they may refrain from doing so, thereby failing to make use of an available tool.

Exemplary embodiments described herein relate to techniques for simplifying and personalizing the process of applying media effects in a video conversation. The media effects may include graphical overlays applied to a face (e.g., digital masks), and/or may include other types of effects (such as sounds, graphical drawings scribbled onto a video chat interface, etc.). Effects may also be applied in group settings, and may affect multiple users in a coordinated way.

Effect application may be performed manually, or may be performed automatically with mood detection capabilities. In some embodiments, emotion detection logic may determine a user's emotional state and automatically recommend media effects that correlate to the emotional state. A user may control mask application through gestures, such as applying different effects with different gestures, or canceling automatic mask application using a gesture (e.g., a swipe gesture). Because recommendations and/or effect application are provided automatically in response to detected emotional states, the process for applying the effects is simplified and made more responsive to occurrences in the video communication.

In some cases, third parties may provide media effects for promotional purposes. Each application of the provided media effect may be tracked and treated as view of promotional material. Moreover, multiple media effects may be applied in a particular style, each of the multiple effects associated with different emotional characteristics (e.g., graphical overlays may be provided that cause a user to take on the appearance of a particular movie character or sports star, where a first overlay is a “sad” version of the character/star and a second overlay is a “happy” version of the character/star).

A real-time data channel may synchronize effect application across multiple participants. The real time data channel may be a third channel that carries generic data (e.g., graphical mask overlay data, shared-screen doodle data, etc.) that is synchronized to an audio channel and a video channel. When broadcasting a video stream that includes one or more effects, the three channels may be sent to an intermediate server, which stitches the three channels together into a single video stream; the single video stream may then be sent to a broadcast server for distribution to the broadcast recipients. The use of a separate and distinct real-time data channel allows for coordination between effect application and video/audio data, while also permitting the task of applying the media effect to be farmed out from a client device to a more powerful server.

This brief summary is intended to serve as a non-limiting introduction to the concepts discussed in more detail below. However, before discussing further exemplary embodiments, a brief note on data privacy is first provided. A more detailed description of privacy settings and authentication will be addressed in connection with the following Figures.

A Note on Data Privacy

Some embodiments described herein make use of training data or metrics that may include information voluntarily provided by one or more users. In such embodiments, data privacy may be protected in a number of ways.

For example, the user may be required to opt in to any data collection before user data is collected or used. The user may also be provided with the opportunity to opt out of any data collection. Before opting in to data collection, the user may be provided with a description of the ways in which the data will be used, how long the data will be retained, and the safeguards that are in place to protect the data from disclosure.

Any information identifying the user from which the data was collected may be purged or disassociated from the data. In the event that any identifying information needs to be retained (e.g., to meet regulatory requirements), the user may be informed of the collection of the identifying information, the uses that will be made of the identifying information, and the amount of time that the identifying information will be retained. Information specifically identifying the user may be removed and may be replaced with, for example, a generic identification number or other non-specific form of identification.

Once collected, the data may be stored in a secure data storage location that includes safeguards to prevent unauthorized access to the data. The data may be stored in an encrypted format. Identifying information and/or non-identifying information may be purged from the data storage after a predetermined period of time.

Although particular privacy protection techniques are described herein for purposes of illustration, one of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that privacy protected in other manners as well. Further details regarding data privacy are discussed below in the section describing network embodiments.

Assuming a user's privacy conditions are met, exemplary embodiments may be deployed in a wide variety of messaging systems, including messaging in a social network or on a mobile device (e.g., through a messaging client application or via short message service), among other possibilities. An overview of exemplary logic and processes for engaging in synchronous video conversation in a messaging system is next provided

As an aid to understanding, a series of examples will first be presented before detailed descriptions of the underlying implementations are described. It is noted that these examples are intended to be illustrative only and that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments shown.

Exemplary Interfaces

Reference is now made to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals are used to refer to like elements throughout. In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding thereof. However, the novel embodiments can be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to facilitate a description thereof. The intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives consistent with the claimed subject matter.

In the Figures and the accompanying description, the designations “a” and “b” and “c” (and similar designators) are intended to be variables representing any positive integer. Thus, for example, if an implementation sets a value for a=5, then a complete set of components 122 illustrated as components 122-1 through 122-a may include components 122-1, 122-2, 122-3, 122-4, and 122-5. The embodiments are not limited in this context.

FIG. 1A depicts an interface 100 for a communications application adapted to show a group or one-to-one video call. The interface 100 may be displayed on the device of a first user. The interface 100 may include a preview window 102, in which the first user can see the video feed that they are current sending to the rest of the participants.

The interface 100 may further include a main window 104 in which the speaker that has been currently selected as most-relevant is shown. The main window 104 may be the most prominent window in the interface 100, and may display a video feed that is larger in size and/or at a higher resolution than the video in the preview window 102 or other windows (such as the roster 108 described below).

Optionally, the participant displayed in the main window 104 may be identified on the interface 100 by an identifier 106. The identifier 106 may be, for example, the name or handle of the participant displayed in the main window 104.

A roster 108 of participants in the call may also be displayed. The roster 108 may include a window 108-i dedicated to each participant in the call, or may exclude the currently-relevant speaker displayed in the main window 104. Each window 108-i may display a video feed of the associated participant (if such a feed is available). The roster 108 may be associated with some functionality. For example, selecting one of the windows 108-i (as shown in FIG. 1A) may lock the selected participant to the main window for a period of time (or until the locking is manually canceled, or until an event occurs, such as another video feed becoming most relevant). Alternatively or in addition, selecting a window 108-i may cause additional information about the associated participant to be displayed, among other possibilities. The windows 108-i of the roster 108 may each be associated with an identifier 110-i identifying the participant in the window 108-i. The identifier 110-i may be, for example, a name or handle of the participant. In some cases, the participant may be associated with a long identifier and a short identifier (e.g., a full name and a nickname, or a full name and a first name only). In some embodiments, the short identifier may be displayed as the identifier 110-i, while the longer identifier may be displayed as the identifier 106 for the main window 104.

FIG. 1B depicts an exemplary frame from a video communication. The frame may be, for example, an image from a video feed. The frame may include a participant's face 112. Analysis of the face 112 may be used to perform emotion detection, as shown in FIG. 1C.

Facial detection techniques may be applied to determine a bounding shape 116 that substantially contains the user's face 112. In some cases, it may be difficult to entirely encompass the user's face with a relatively simple bounding shape 116, and so some small portions of the face may extend beyond the boundaries of the bounding shape 116. Furthermore, because few people have perfectly square or oval faces, the bounding shape 116 may include some areas that do not contain the user's face. Preferably, the bounding shape 116 is sized and shaped so as to fit as much of the user's face in as possible, while avoiding encompassing areas that do not include the face. Further preferably, the bounding shape 116 is a relatively simple shape, such as a square or oval, rather than a relatively complex shape, such as a trapezoid or freeform curve.

Optionally, one or more axes of the bounding shape 116 may be defined. In the depicted example, the facial detection technique involves identifying features of the face, such as the ears, eyes, nose, and mouth. A vertical axis extends vertically through the approximate center of the face, splitting the eyes, nose, and mouth in half. A horizontal axis extends horizontally through the approximate center of the face, approximately through the ears and eyes.

The face may also be analyzed to identify especially expressive features, which may be particularly relevant to emotion detection. For example, the region corresponding to the eyes and mouth may be considered to be more expressive than (e.g.) the ears or hair. Accordingly, one or more expressive regions 118-1, 118-2, 118-3 may be drawn around the expressive features and analyzed for indications of emotion type (e.g., upturned or downturned mouth, raised or lowered eyebrows, furrowed brow, etc.).

As an alternative or in addition to the techniques above, other inputs may be used to perform emotion detection. For example, an audio feed may be analyzed to detect changes in a user's voice. Other sensor data may be used to detect characteristics associated with emotional states, as well. For instance, a heart rate monitor may detect an increased or decreased pulse; a fingerprint sensor may measure skin conductivity; an accelerometer or orientation sensor may detect a user's hand stability as the user holds their mobile device, etc. These and other characteristics may be associated with certain emotional states.

After the user's emotional state is detected, the system may automatically apply a media effect associated with the detected emotional state. FIG. 1D depicts an exemplary interface in which media effects 120-1, 120-2, 120-3 are applied to a user based on a detected emotion. In this case, the system has detected a “happy” emotional state and applied a “happy” media effect (a graphical overlay with an exaggerated animation showing a smile and happy eyes).

The system may select and automatically apply a default media effect associated with the emotional state. Alternatively, the system may select and apply a media effect based on user preferences (e.g., a predetermined media effect selected by the user in advance), and/or based on previous user-applied media effects (e.g., media effects that the user has previously selected for application, particularly when applied during or close in time to the occurrence of the same or a similar emotional state as the detected emotional state).

Multiple different media effects may be associated with an emotional state. In some embodiments, upon detecting an emotional state, the system may display an indication of the emotional state (e.g., an icon associated with the emotional state, or text identifying the emotional state). A user may select one of the multiple media effects associated with the emotional state through different inputs. For example, on a touch display, a user may swipe left to apply a first media effect, swipe up to apply a second media effect, etc. In another example, a user may move the camera left, right, up, down, etc. to apply different media effects. Other techniques for selecting among predetermined or preselected media effects may also be used.

The media effect may be added to the user's video stream and broadcast to other users, so that other participants in the conversation may experience the media effect. In some embodiments, a media effect may apply to a different participant than the participant who applied the media effect, or may apply to multiple users in a coordinated manner. For example, FIG. 1E depicts an interface in which a media effect is applied to multiple users based on a detected emotion.

In this case, the system detected an emotional state (e.g., a romantic emotional state) associated with a first participant (Jill) directed to a second participant (Jack). The system therefore applies a romantic media effect to both Jill's and Jack's video feeds. In this case, an animated kissing media effect 122-1 appears in Jill's display, initially centered on Jill's mouth. The effect 122-1 appears to fly to the edge of Jill's screen and disappears. It reappears as a media effect 122-2 on Jack's display and flies to Jack's cheek. Each participant in the conversation is able to see this coordinated media effect. Other examples may include animating an angry user's face as a dragon and showing the user breathing fire on another user, throwing snowballs, etc.

The multi-user media effect may be applied to the original (selecting) user for whom the emotional state was detected and at least one other user. The other user may be, for example, the currently-active user (e.g., the user that is currently speaking or otherwise considered to be most relevant), another user having the same emotional state, a user associated with a portion of the display at which the original user is currently looking (e.g., if the user is staring at another user's video feed and feeling an emotion that triggers a multi-user media effect, the media effect may be targeted at the other user's video feed), or a selected other user.

In some embodiments, the media effects may be automatically applied directly. In other cases, multiple candidate media effects may be identified, and a set of recommended media effects may be automatically presented. FIG. 1F depicts an exemplary interface for recommending a media effect to be applied based on a detected emotion.

Upon detecting an emotional state, the system may identify a number of candidate media effects. The system may present a recommendation dialog 124 in the communications interface providing selectable icons allowing one of the media effects to be selected for application.

In the depicted example, the recommendation dialog 124 provides an icon for a first recommended media effect 126-1, which in this case is an animation to be applied to the selecting user's video feed. An icon for a second recommended media effect 126-2 allows the selecting user to apply an animation to themselves and another user.

Media effects are not limited to animations. For example, an icon for a third recommended media effect 126-3 allows the user to apply an audio effect to the video feed. Another type of media effect is a drawing or doodle applied over a display, as shown in FIG. 1G.

In this example, a first participant (Jill) interacts with a touch-screen display to draw one or more lines or shapes 128 on the communications interface (in this case, the main window displaying a second participant, Jack). An example of the first participant's display as the user draws the shape is shown in the upper half of FIG. 1G.

Graphics data may be transmitted as a media effect and applied to the displays of other users. The second participant's display is shown in the bottom half of FIG. 1G. In this example, Jack is displayed in the preview window, and the line/shape 128 is drawn in the appropriate location in the preview window.

Other participants would also see the graphic applied over the portion of the display corresponding to the second participant. In other embodiments, any drawn graphics or doodles may be displayed in the main window, regardless of the user currently displayed in the main window.

Media effects need not necessarily be graphics. For example, FIG. 1H depicts an example of an audible media effect.130. In this case, triggering the media effect causes a song or recording to be played on participant's devices.

Techniques for performing emotion detection, recommending media effects, and applying the media effects are next described in connection with FIGS. 2-4B.

System Configuration

FIG. 2 depicts an exemplary system for automatically recommending and/or applying media effects. A sending client 202-1 may be a device associated with a first participant in a video conversation. The sending client 202-1 may be, for example a mobile device (although the present invention is not limited to application by mobile devices) executing a communications application 204-1 for participating in a video communication with one or more other participants.

The communications application 204-1 may cause information associated with the video conversation to be transmitted to one or more servers that facilitate the conversation. For example, the information may include video data 208 containing graphical frames associated with the conversation, audio data 212 containing sound information to be synchronized with the graphical frames, and control data 216. The control data 216 may include various instructions, identifiers, etc. used to apply media effect that are synchronized to the video data 208 and the audio data 212.

Each type of data may be transmitted in an associated channel. For example, the communications application 204-1, or another component of the client 202-1, may open a video channel 206, an audio channel 210, and a control channel 214 with the media effect server 218. The video channel 206 may carry only video data 208 in a video format. Thus, the media effect server 218 may treat any data received on the video channel 206 as data in a video format and may process the data appropriately. Similarly, the audio channel 210 may carry only audio data 212 in an audio format.

The control channel 214 may transmit generic data that is not necessarily in a predetermined format, or may transmit control instructions in a specified control format. For example, the control channel 214 may carry an instruction to analyze the video data 208 and/or audio data 212 for emotional characteristics, or may carry an instruction to apply a media effect. The control channel 214 may be, for example, a Web Real Time Communications (WebRTC) channel.

The video channel 206, audio channel 210, and control channel may carry information in both directions. Thus, for example, the video channel 206 and audio channel 210 may carry data for display/playback on the sending client 202-1 (e.g., data relating to the video feeds of one or more recipient clients 202-2, 202-3, 202-4). The control channel 214 may carry recommendations from the media effect server 218, one or more identified emotional states, other instructions, etc.

The media effect server 218 may be configured to analyze the video data 208 and/or audio data 212 using emotion detection logic 220 for detecting an emotional state associated with the video data 208 and/or audio data 212. The media effect server 218 may also store a media effect library 222, which includes a number of available media effects and one or more associated emotional states that are paired with the media effects. The media effects may be identified by an identifier, and the media effect library 222 may optionally mirror a media effect library stored locally at the client devices 202.

The media effect server 218 may further include audiovisual compilation logic 224 for combining the video data 208, the audio data 212, and any applied media effects. The audiovisual compilation logic 224 may include logic for synchronizing the audio data 212 with the video data 208, and further for synchronizing the media effects with the combined audio/video data (or with the audio data 212 or video data 208 individually).

Once combined, the resultant audiovisual data 230 may be transmitted from the media effect server 218 to a broadcast server 226. The broadcast server 226 may include broadcast logic 228 that identifies one or more recipient clients 202-2, 202-3, 202-4 associated with the video communication. The broadcast server 226 may transmit the audiovisual data 230, which includes the audio data 212, the video data 208, and the applied media effects, to each of the recipient clients 202-2, 202-3, 202-4.

FIG. 3 is a data flow diagram depicting an exemplary exchange of information in the system of FIG. 2. The sending client may initially transmit audio data 212 and video data 208 to the media effect server, and the media effect server may analyze the data to determine one or more emotional states associated with the data. If the media effect server identifies multiple candidate media effects, the media effect server may transmit a recommendation 302 that identifies the candidate media effects to the sending client. The sending client may present a recommendation interface and allow the user to select one of the candidate media effects for application.

After a media effect has been identified for application, the sending client may transmit additional audio data 212 video data 208, and control data 216 that identifies the media effect to be applied (or that includes a copy of the media effect). Upon receiving these items, the media effect server may combine the audio data with the video data and the media effect, and generate a stream of audiovisual data 230. The media effect server may transmit the combined audiovisual data 230 to a broadcast server, which may identify recipients for the audiovisual data 230 and transmit the audiovisual data 230 to one or more recipient client devices.

Exemplary Logic

FIG. 4A is a flowchart depicting exemplary logic 400 for applying a media effect based on a detected emotion.

At block 402, a system (e.g., a client device or a communication server facilitating a video call) may receive one or more frames associated with a video call. For example, a video call application operating on a client mobile device may receive one or more video frames from a camera of the mobile device.

At block 404, the system may determine whether it is configured to analyze the data locally (e.g., using the processor of the client device), or whether it is configured to transmit the data for remote analysis.

If the determination at block 404 is “NO” (i.e., local analysis is not performed), then the frames may be analyzed remotely. Accordingly, processing may proceed to block 406 and the video frames may be transmitted to a media effect server. Visual information may be transmitted on a video channel, and audio information may be transmitted on an audio channel. The frames may be transmitted in conjunction with a control signal requesting that emotion detection be performed on the frames. Alternatively, the media effect server may perform emotion detection by default.

After the media effect server analyzes the frames, the media effect server may identify one or more media effects corresponding to an emotional state present in the frames. The identified media effect(s) may be received at block 408. In some embodiments, the system may receive an identifier or designator associated with the media effects, or another form of description of the media effects. Alternatively or in addition, a copy of the media effects (e.g., a graphic overlay to be applied, a song to be played, etc.) and/or instructions for applying the media effects may be received.

If the determination at block 404 was “YES” (i.e., local analysis should be performed), then processing may proceed to block 410. At block 410, the system may perform emotion detection to identify one or more emotions associated with the video frames received in block 402. For example, the frames may be analyzed to determine if a face is present in the frame and, if so, may be further analyzed to detect particularly expressive portions of the face (e.g., eyes, mouth, etc.). The expressive portions of the face may be compared to known emotional characteristics (e.g., a mouth with upturned corners may indicate a smile associated with a happy emotional state, whereas downturned eyebrows may indicate a scowl associated with an angry emotional state). Exemplary techniques for detecting emotional characteristics are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/189,467, filed on Feb. 25, 2014 and entitled “Techniques for Emotion Detection and Content Delivery.”

At block 412, the system may identify one or more media effects that are correlated to or associated with the identified emotional states. For example, the media effects may be stored in a media effect library and may be indexed based on the emotional states. The system may perform a lookup in to the library based on the emotional state and return any associated media effects.

Optionally, the system may identify one or more media effects to be applied, where the one or more media effects are not present in a local storage. The system may transmit a request for the effects to a remote storage, such as a media effect library stored on the media effect server, to retrieve the effects.

In some embodiments, the media effects may be ranked against each other based on a confidence in the detected emotional state, as well as user history and/or preferences. The single top-ranked media effect may selected for automatic application, or the top n-highest ranked media effects may be selected to be recommended to a user.

Emotion detection and media effect selection are described in more detail in connection with FIG. 4B. The techniques described below may also be applied when performing local analysis as described in blocks 410 and 412 (and vice versa). Processing may then proceed to block 414.

At block 414, the system may determine whether multiple effects were received at block 408 or identified at block 412, or whether a single effect was received/identified.

If the determination at block 414 is “YES (i.e., multiple effects were identified or received), then processing may proceed to block 416. At block 416, the system may display a recommendation dialog, such as the one depicted in FIG. 1F. At block 418, the system may receive a selection of one or more of the media effects on the dialog. Processing may then proceed to block 420.

If the determination at block 414 was “NO” (i.e., only a single media effect was identified or received), then processing may proceed directly to block 420. At block 420, the system may optionally fade in the application of the media effect. For example, the media effect may appear on the user's display over a period of time, during which the user has the option to cancel application of the media effect. For example, the user may execute a cancellation touch gesture on a touch-screen interface while the effect is fading in (e.g., swiping across the display) to cancel application of the effect. Alternatively, the system may display a prompt asking the user to confirm whether to apply the media effect.

At block 422, the system may determine whether a cancellation instruction was received (e.g., the user canceled application while the effect was fading in at block 420). If the determination at block 422 is “YES” (i.e., the media effect has been canceled), then processing may proceed to block 424 and the system may cancel application of the media effect. Processing may then return to block 402, and further video frames may be received and analyzed.

If the determination at block 422 is “NO” (i.e., the media effect has not been canceled), then processing may proceed to block 426. At block 426, the system may generate a control signal and transmit the control signal to the media effect server. The control signal may include an identifier of the media effect so that the media effect server can retrieve the media effect from its own media effect library, or may include a copy of the media effect (or another remote location at which the media effect is stored so that the media effect server may retrieve the media effect from the remote location). The control signal may be transmitted on the control channel.

At block 428, the system may optionally increment a promoter count associated with the applied media effect. In some cases, the media effect may relate to a subject for promotion (e.g., a newly released movie, a restaurant, a sports team, etc.). A promoter of the subject may provide the media effect to the media effect server as a form of promotion or advertisement. For this service, the promoter may pay the owner of the media effect server a fee. Each time the media effect is applied by a user, this may be counted as an ad view for purposes of determining the fee. Accordingly, if the applied media effect is the subject of a promotion, a count associated with the number of ad views may be incremented at block 428. Processing may then return to block 402, and further video frames may be received and analyzed.

FIG. 4B is a flowchart depicting exemplary logic 450 for recommending a media effect to be applied in a video communication.

At block 452, a system (e.g., a client device or a communication server facilitating a video call) may receive one or more frames associated with a video call. For example, a media effect server may receive one or more frames from a communications application operating on a client device.

At block 454, the system may perform emotion detection on the received video frame(s). The frames may be analyzed in a manner similar to that discussed above in connection with block 410 of FIG. 4A.

As part of the process for determining emotion detection, the system may identify one or more candidate emotional states that may be associated with the received frame(s). For example, the system may determine that characteristics of the frames yield a 90% likelihood that the user is happy, an 85% likelihood that the user is surprised, and a 20% likelihood that the user is confused. At block 456, the system may determine confidence values or scores associated with each of the possible emotional states.

At block 458, the system may identify media effects that are candidates for application based on the analyzed frame(s). For example, at block 460 the system may retrieve one or more media effects associated with the highest-confidence state(s). The system may retrieve the top n (a predetermined number) emotional states as determined by the confidence values, or may retrieve all emotional states associated with a confidence value above a predetermined threshold amount. For example, if the predetermined threshold is set at 80%, then in the above example the system would retrieve the media effects associated with the happy and surprised states. The media effects may be stored in a media effect library and may be indexed based on emotional states associated with the media effects. The system may perform a lookup into the media effect library based on the determined emotional state and may retrieve any associated media effects

At block 462, the system may assign weights to the retrieved media effects. The weights may be based on user preferences and/or history. For example, if a user has manually applied a certain media effect before, the media effect may be assigned a higher weight as compared to a media effect that has never been applied. Media effects that have been applied by the user recently may be assigned a higher weight than media effects that have been applied further back in the past.

Weights may also be based on general user preferences or likes and dislikes, e.g., as retrieved from a social graph associated with a social networking service that the user is a member of. For example, the system may access the user's social graph and identify one or more nodes with which the user has a relatively high affinity. For instance, if the user has “liked” a particular movie in their social network, then a media effect associated with that movie (e.g., a visual overlay that places a movie character's face over the user's) may be assigned a relatively high weight. The system may further access the social graphs of other users that are connected to the user in question in the social graph, and may optionally use their affinities to affect the primary user's preferences.

Optionally, the system may apply a randomization factor to increase or decrease the weights by a variable amount. This may prevent the same media effect from being applied over and over again, while still applying the media effects most preferred by the user.

At block 464, the system may rank the effects based on the confidence scores and/or the applied weights. The system may select the top-ranked effect for automatic application, or may select the top n (a predetermined number) effects to be automatically recommended to the user. At block 466, the system may transmit the identified media effect or effects to the client device from which the frames were received at block 452.

At block 468, the system may receive a media effect to be applied over the control channel. If the system transmitted a single media effect at block 466, the data received at block 468 may include a confirmation that the media effect should be applied (alternatively, the media effect may be automatically applied if it is not canceled within a predetermined amount of time). If the system transmitted multiple media effects at block 466, the system may receive a selection of one or more media effects from the recommendation to be applied.

At block 470, the system may combine the media effect identified at block 468 with the video frames received at block 452 and/or any audio or visual data received since the original frames were received. The system may identify metadata associated with the video data, the audio data, and/or the control data to synchronize the media effect with the audio and video data. The system may combine the synchronized audio, video, and media effect data into a single audiovisual stream relating to the first participant (who transmitted the original frames).

At block 472, the system may determine whether the media effect is designed to affect more than one user (a multi-user media effect). The number of users affected by the media effect may be stored in metadata associated with the media effect. If the determination at block 472 is “YES” (i.e., another participant is affected), then processing may proceed to block 474. At block 474, the system retrieves audio and video data associated with the other affected participants. The audio and video data may be synchronized with the media effect and combined in a manner similar to the one carried out at block 470. Processing may then proceed to block 476.

If the determination at block 472 is “NO” (i.e., another participant is not affected), then processing may proceed directly to block 476. At block 476, the system may transmit the combined audiovisual data to the broadcast server for distribution to the participants in the video call.

Processing may then return to block 452, and the system may receive and process further video frames.

Messaging System Overview

These examples may be implemented by a communications system that is provided either locally, at a client device, or remotely (e.g., at a remote server). FIGS. 5A-5C depict various examples of communications systems, and are discussed in more detail below.

FIG. 5A depicts an exemplary centralized communications system 500 generally arranged to receive, store, and deliver video communications. The centralized system 500 may implement some or all of the structure and/or operations of a communications service in a single computing entity, such as entirely within a single centralized server device 526.

The communications system 500 may include a computer-implemented system having software applications that include one or more components. Although the communications system 500 shown in FIG. 5A has a limited number of elements in a certain topology, the communications system 500 may include more or fewer elements in alternate topologies.

A client device 510 may transmit communications addressed to one or more recipient users, user accounts, or other identifiers resolving to one or more receiving client devices 510. In exemplary embodiments, each of the client devices 510 and their respective communications clients 520 are associated with a particular user or users of the communications service 500. In some embodiments, the client devices 510 may be cellular devices such as smartphones and may be identified to the communications service 500 based on a phone number associated with each of the client devices 510. In some embodiments, each communications client may be associated with a user account registered with the communications service 500. In general, each communications client may be addressed through various techniques for the reception of communications. While in some embodiments the client devices 510 may be cellular devices, in other embodiments one or more of the client devices 510 may be personal computers, tablet devices, any other form of computing device.

The client 510 may include one or more input devices 512 and one or more output devices 518. The input devices 512 may include, for example, microphones, keyboards, cameras, electronic pens, touch screens, and other devices for receiving inputs including communications data, requests, commands, user interface interactions, selections, and other types of input. The output devices 518 may include a speaker, a display device such as a monitor or touch screen, and other devices for presenting an interface to the communications system 500.

The client 510 may include a memory 519, which may be a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, such as one or a combination of a hard drive, solid state drive, flash storage, read only memory, or random access memory. The memory 519 may a representation of an input 514 and/or a representation of an output 516, as well as one or more applications. For example, the memory 519 may store a communications client 520 and/or a social networking client that allows a user to interact with a social networking service.

The input 514 may be textual, such as in the case where the input device 212 is a keyboard. Alternatively, the input 514 may be an audio recording, such as in the case where the input device 512 is a microphone and/or a video recording, such as in the case where the input device 512 is a camera. The input 514 may be subjected to automatic speech recognition (ASR) logic in order to transform an audio recording to text that is processable by the communications system 500. The ASR logic may be located at the client device 510 (so that the audio recording is processed locally by the client 510 and corresponding text is transmitted to the messaging server 526), or may be located remotely at the messaging server 526 (in which case, the audio recording may be transmitted to the messaging server 526 and the messaging server 526 may process the audio into text). Other combinations are also possible—for example, if the input device 512 is a touch pad or electronic pen, the input 514 may be in the form of handwriting, which may be subjected to handwriting or optical character recognition analysis logic in order to transform the input 512 into processable text.

The client 510 may be provided with a network interface 522 for communicating with a network 524, such as the Internet. The network interface 522 may transmit the input 512 in a format and/or using a protocol compatible with the network 524 and may receive a corresponding output 516 from the network 524.

The network interface 522 may communicate through the network 524 to a communications server 526. The communications server 526 may be operative to receive, store, and forward communications between communications clients.

The communications server 526 may include a network interface 522, communications preferences 528, and communications logic 530. The communications preferences 528 may include one or more privacy settings for one or more users and/or communications. Furthermore, the communications preferences 528 may include one or more settings, including default settings, for the logic described herein.

The communications logic 530 may include emotion detection logic 532 that is operable to evaluate video frames and determine an associated emotional state. The communications logic 530 may further include recommendation/transmittal logic 534 that is operable to select one or more media effects associated with the detected emotional state and transmit the media effects to the client 510.

In some embodiments, communications may be sent peer-to-peer between users without the use of intervening server devices such as may implement the communications service 500. In these embodiments, the communications logic 530, including the emotion detection logic 532 and the recommendation/transmittal logic 534, may reside on the client devices 510.

The network interface 522 of the client 510 and/or the communications server 526 may also be used to communicate through the network 524 with a social networking server 536. The social networking server 536 may include or may interact with a social networking graph 538 that defines connections in a social network. Furthermore, the communications server 526 may connect to the social networking server 536 for various purposes, such as retrieving connection information, messaging history, event details, etc. from the social network.

A user of the client 510 may be an individual (human user), an entity (e.g., an enterprise, business, or third-party application), or a group (e.g., of individuals or entities) that interacts or communicates with or over the social networking server 536. The social-networking server 536 may be a network-addressable computing system hosting an online social network. The social networking server 536 may generate, store, receive, and send social-networking data, such as, for example, user-profile data, concept-profile data, social-graph information, or other suitable data related to the online social network. The social networking server 536 may be accessed by the other components of the network environment either directly or via the network 524.

The social networking server 536 may include an authorization server (or other suitable component(s)) that allows users to opt in to or opt out of having their actions logged by social-networking server 536 or shared with other systems (e.g., third-party systems, such as the messaging server 526), for example, by setting appropriate privacy settings. A privacy setting of a user may determine what information associated with the user may be logged, how information associated with the user may be logged, when information associated with the user may be logged, who may log information associated with the user, whom information associated with the user may be shared with, and for what purposes information associated with the user may be logged or shared. Authorization servers may be used to enforce one or more privacy settings of the users of social-networking server 536 through blocking, data hashing, anonymization, or other suitable techniques as appropriate.

More specifically, one or more of the content objects of the online social network may be associated with a privacy setting. The privacy settings (or “access settings”) for an object may be stored in any suitable manner, such as, for example, in association with the object, in an index on an authorization server, in another suitable manner, or any combination thereof. A privacy setting of an object may specify how the object (or particular information associated with an object) can be accessed (e.g., viewed or shared) using the online social network. Where the privacy settings for an object allow a particular user to access that object, the object may be described as being “visible” with respect to that user. As an example and not by way of limitation, a user of the online social network may specify privacy settings for a user-profile page identify a set of users that may access the work experience information on the user-profile page, thus excluding other users from accessing the information. In particular embodiments, the privacy settings may specify a “blocked list” of users that should not be allowed to access certain information associated with the object. In other words, the blocked list may specify one or more users or entities for which an object is not visible. As an example and not by way of limitation, a user may specify a set of users that may not access photos albums associated with the user, thus excluding those users from accessing the photo albums (while also possibly allowing certain users not within the set of users to access the photo albums).

In particular embodiments, privacy settings may be associated with particular elements of the social networking graph 538. Privacy settings of a social-graph element, such as a node or an edge, may specify how the social-graph element, information associated with the social-graph element, or content objects associated with the social-graph element can be accessed using the online social network. As an example and not by way of limitation, a particular concept node corresponding to a particular photo may have a privacy setting specifying that the photo may only be accessed by users tagged in the photo and their friends. In particular embodiments, privacy settings may allow users to opt in or opt out of having their actions logged by social networking server 536 or shared with other systems. In particular embodiments, the privacy settings associated with an object may specify any suitable granularity of permitted access or denial of access. As an example and not by way of limitation, access or denial of access may be specified for particular users (e.g., only me, my roommates, and my boss), users within a particular degrees-of-separation (e.g., friends, or friends-of-friends), user groups (e.g., the gaming club, my family), user networks (e.g., employees of particular employers, students or alumni of particular university), all users (“public”), no users (“private”), users of third-party systems, particular applications (e.g., third-party applications, external websites), other suitable users or entities, or any combination thereof. Although this disclosure describes using particular privacy settings in a particular manner, this disclosure contemplates using any suitable privacy settings in any suitable manner.

In response to a request from a user (or other entity) for a particular object stored in a data store, the social networking server 536 may send a request to the data store for the object. The request may identify the user associated with the request. The requested data object may only be sent to the user (or a client system 510 of the user) if the authorization server determines that the user is authorized to access the object based on the privacy settings associated with the object. If the requesting user is not authorized to access the object, the authorization server may prevent the requested object from being retrieved from the data store, or may prevent the requested object from be sent to the user. In the search query context, an object may only be generated as a search result if the querying user is authorized to access the object. In other words, the object must have a visibility that is visible to the querying user. If the object has a visibility that is not visible to the user, the object may be excluded from the search results.

In some embodiments, targeting criteria may be used to identify users of the social network for various purposes. Targeting criteria used to identify and target users may include explicit, stated user interests on social-networking server 536 or explicit connections of a user to a node, object, entity, brand, or page on social networking server 536. In addition or as an alternative, such targeting criteria may include implicit or inferred user interests or connections (which may include analyzing a user's history, demographic, social or other activities, friends' social or other activities, subscriptions, or any of the preceding of other users similar to the user (based, e.g., on shared interests, connections, or events)). Particular embodiments may utilize platform targeting, which may involve platform and “like” impression data; contextual signals (e.g., “Who is viewing now or has viewed recently the page for COCA-COLA?”); light-weight connections (e.g., “check-ins”); connection lookalikes; fans; extracted keywords; EMU advertising; inferential advertising; coefficients, affinities, or other social-graph information; friends-of-friends connections; pinning or boosting; deals; polls; household income, social clusters or groups; products detected in images or other media; social- or open-graph edge types; geo-prediction; views of profile or pages; status updates or other user posts (analysis of which may involve natural-language processing or keyword extraction); events information; or collaborative filtering. Identifying and targeting users may also implicate privacy settings (such as user opt-outs), data hashing, or data anonymization, as appropriate.

The centralized embodiment depicted in FIG. 5A may be well-suited to deployment as a new system or as an upgrade to an existing system, because the logic for applying media effects (e.g., the emotion detection logic 532 and/or the recommendation/transmittal logic 534) are incorporated into the communications server 526. In contrast, FIG. 5B depicts an exemplary distributed communications system 550, in which functionality for recognizing productive intent and generating a list of suggested recipients is distributed and remotely accessible from the messaging server. Examples of a distributed system 550 include a client-server architecture, a 3-tier architecture, an N-tier architecture, a tightly-coupled or clustered architecture, a peer-to-peer architecture, a master-slave architecture, a shared database architecture, and other types of distributed systems.

Many of the components depicted in FIG. 5B are identical to those in FIG. 5A, and a description of these elements is not repeated here for the sake of brevity. The primary difference between the centralized embodiment and the distributed embodiment is the addition of a separate media effect server 552, which hosts emotion detection logic 532 and the recommendation/transmittal logic 534. The media effect server 552 may be distinct from the communications server 526 but may communicate with the communications server 526, either directly or through the network 524, to provide the functionality of the emotion detection logic 532 and the recommendation/transmittal logic 534 to the communications server 526.

The embodiment depicted in FIG. 5B may be particularly well suited to allow exemplary embodiments to be deployed alongside existing communications systems, for example when it is difficult or undesirable to replace an existing communications server. Additionally, in some cases the communications server 526 may have limited resources (e.g. processing or memory resources) that limit or preclude the addition of the additional pivot functionality. In such situations, the capabilities described herein may still be provided through the separate media effect server 552.

FIG. 5C illustrates an example of a social networking graph 538. In exemplary embodiments, a social networking service may store one or more social graphs 538 in one or more data stores as a social graph data structure via the social networking service.

The social graph 538 may include multiple nodes, such as user nodes 554 and concept nodes 556. The social graph 228 may furthermore include edges 558 connecting the nodes. The nodes and edges of social graph 228 may be stored as data objects, for example, in a data store (such as a social-graph database). Such a data store may include one or more searchable or queryable indexes of nodes or edges of social graph 228.

The social graph 538 may be accessed by a social-networking server 226, client system 210, third-party system (e.g., the translation server 224), or any other approved system or device for suitable applications.

A user node 554 may correspond to a user of the social-networking system. A user may be an individual (human user), an entity (e.g., an enterprise, business, or third-party application), or a group (e.g., of individuals or entities) that interacts or communicates with or over the social-networking system. In exemplary embodiments, when a user registers for an account with the social-networking system, the social-networking system may create a user node 554 corresponding to the user, and store the user node 30 in one or more data stores. Users and user nodes 554 described herein may, where appropriate, refer to registered users and user nodes 554 associated with registered users. In addition or as an alternative, users and user nodes 554 described herein may, where appropriate, refer to users that have not registered with the social-networking system. In particular embodiments, a user node 554 may be associated with information provided by a user or information gathered by various systems, including the social-networking system. As an example and not by way of limitation, a user may provide their name, profile picture, contact information, birth date, sex, marital status, family status, employment, education background, preferences, interests, or other demographic information. In particular embodiments, a user node 554 may be associated with one or more data objects corresponding to information associated with a user. In particular embodiments, a user node 554 may correspond to one or more webpages. A user node 554 may be associated with a unique user identifier for the user in the social-networking system.

In particular embodiments, a concept node 556 may correspond to a concept. As an example and not by way of limitation, a concept may correspond to a place (such as, for example, a movie theater, restaurant, landmark, or city); a website (such as, for example, a website associated with the social-network service or a third-party website associated with a web-application server); an entity (such as, for example, a person, business, group, sports team, or celebrity); a resource (such as, for example, an audio file, video file, digital photo, text file, structured document, or application) which may be located within the social-networking system or on an external server, such as a web-application server; real or intellectual property (such as, for example, a sculpture, painting, movie, game, song, idea, photograph, or written work); a game; an activity; an idea or theory; another suitable concept; or two or more such concepts. A concept node 556 may be associated with information of a concept provided by a user or information gathered by various systems, including the social-networking system. As an example and not by way of limitation, information of a concept may include a name or a title; one or more images (e.g., an image of the cover page of a book); a location (e.g., an address or a geographical location); a website (which may be associated with a URL); contact information (e.g., a phone number or an email address); other suitable concept information; or any suitable combination of such information. In particular embodiments, a concept node 556 may be associated with one or more data objects corresponding to information associated with concept node 556. In particular embodiments, a concept node 556 may correspond to one or more webpages.

In particular embodiments, a node in social graph 538 may represent or be represented by a webpage (which may be referred to as a “profile page”). Profile pages may be hosted by or accessible to the social-networking system. Profile pages may also be hosted on third-party websites associated with a third-party server. As an example and not by way of limitation, a profile page corresponding to a particular external webpage may be the particular external webpage and the profile page may correspond to a particular concept node 556. Profile pages may be viewable by all or a selected subset of other users. As an example and not by way of limitation, a user node 554 may have a corresponding user-profile page in which the corresponding user may add content, make declarations, or otherwise express himself or herself. A business page such as business page 205 may comprise a user-profile page for a commerce entity. As another example and not by way of limitation, a concept node 556 may have a corresponding concept-profile page in which one or more users may add content, make declarations, or express themselves, particularly in relation to the concept corresponding to concept node 556.

In particular embodiments, a concept node 556 may represent a third-party webpage or resource hosted by a third-party system. The third-party webpage or resource may include, among other elements, content, a selectable or other icon, or other inter-actable object (which may be implemented, for example, in JavaScript, AJAX, or PHP codes) representing an action or activity. As an example and not by way of limitation, a third-party webpage may include a selectable icon such as “like,” “check in,” “eat,” “recommend,” or another suitable action or activity. A user viewing the third-party webpage may perform an action by selecting one of the icons (e.g., “eat”), causing a client system to send to the social-networking system a message indicating the user's action. In response to the message, the social-networking system may create an edge (e.g., an “eat” edge) between a user node 554 corresponding to the user and a concept node 556 corresponding to the third-party webpage or resource and store edge 558 in one or more data stores.

In particular embodiments, a pair of nodes in social graph 538 may be connected to each other by one or more edges 558. An edge 558 connecting a pair of nodes may represent a relationship between the pair of nodes. In particular embodiments, an edge 558 may include or represent one or more data objects or attributes corresponding to the relationship between a pair of nodes. As an example and not by way of limitation, a first user may indicate that a second user is a “friend” of the first user. In response to this indication, the social-networking system may send a “friend request” to the second user. If the second user confirms the “friend request,” the social-networking system may create an edge 558 connecting the first user's user node 554 to the second user's user node 554 in social graph 538 and store edge 558 as social-graph information in one or more data stores. In the example of FIG. 5C, social graph 538 includes an edge 558 indicating a friend relation between user nodes 554 of user “Amanda” and user “Dorothy.” Although this disclosure describes or illustrates particular edges 558 with particular attributes connecting particular user nodes 554, this disclosure contemplates any suitable edges 558 with any suitable attributes connecting user nodes 554. As an example and not by way of limitation, an edge 558 may represent a friendship, family relationship, business or employment relationship, fan relationship, follower relationship, visitor relationship, subscriber relationship, superior/subordinate relationship, reciprocal relationship, non-reciprocal relationship, another suitable type of relationship, or two or more such relationships. Moreover, although this disclosure generally describes nodes as being connected, this disclosure also describes users or concepts as being connected. Herein, references to users or concepts being connected may, where appropriate, refer to the nodes corresponding to those users or concepts being connected in social graph 538 by one or more edges 558.

In particular embodiments, an edge 558 between a user node 554 and a concept node 556 may represent a particular action or activity performed by a user associated with user node 554 toward a concept associated with a concept node 556. As an example and not by way of limitation, as illustrated in FIG. 5C, a user may “like,” “attended,” “played,” “listened,” “cooked,” “worked at,” or “watched” a concept, each of which may correspond to a edge type or subtype. A concept-profile page corresponding to a concept node 556 may include, for example, a selectable “check in” icon (such as, for example, a clickable “check in” icon) or a selectable “add to favorites” icon. Similarly, after a user clicks these icons, the social-networking system may create a “favorite” edge or a “check in” edge in response to a user's action corresponding to a respective action. As another example and not by way of limitation, a user (user “Carla”) may listen to a particular song (“Across the Sea”) using a particular application (SPOTIFY, which is an online music application). In this case, the social-networking system may create a “listened” edge 558 and a “used” edge (as illustrated in FIG. 5C) between user nodes 554 corresponding to the user and concept nodes 556 corresponding to the song and application to indicate that the user listened to the song and used the application. Moreover, the social-networking system may create a “played” edge 558 (as illustrated in FIG. 5C) between concept nodes 556 corresponding to the song and the application to indicate that the particular song was played by the particular application. In this case, “played” edge 558 corresponds to an action performed by an external application (SPOTIFY) on an external audio file (the song “Across the Sea”). Although this disclosure describes particular edges 558 with particular attributes connecting user nodes 554 and concept nodes 556, this disclosure contemplates any suitable edges 558 with any suitable attributes connecting user nodes 554 and concept nodes 556. Moreover, although this disclosure describes edges between a user node 554 and a concept node 556 representing a single relationship, this disclosure contemplates edges between a user node 554 and a concept node 556 representing one or more relationships. As an example and not by way of limitation, an edge 558 may represent both that a user likes and has used at a particular concept. Alternatively, another edge 558 may represent each type of relationship (or multiples of a single relationship) between a user node 554 and a concept node 556 (as illustrated in FIG. 5C between user node 554 for user “Edwin” and concept node 556 for “SPOTIFY”).

In particular embodiments, the social-networking system may create an edge 558 between a user node 554 and a concept node 556 in social graph 538. As an example and not by way of limitation, a user viewing a concept-profile page (such as, for example, by using a web browser or a special-purpose application hosted by the user's client system) may indicate that he or she likes the concept represented by the concept node 556 by clicking or selecting a “Like” icon, which may cause the user's client system to send to the social-networking system a message indicating the user's liking of the concept associated with the concept-profile page. In response to the message, the social-networking system may create an edge 558 between user node 554 associated with the user and concept node 556, as illustrated by “like” edge 558 between the user and concept node 556. In particular embodiments, the social-networking system may store an edge 558 in one or more data stores. In particular embodiments, an edge 558 may be automatically formed by the social-networking system in response to a particular user action. As an example and not by way of limitation, if a first user uploads a picture, watches a movie, or listens to a song, an edge 558 may be formed between user node 554 corresponding to the first user and concept nodes 556 corresponding to those concepts. Although this disclosure describes forming particular edges 558 in particular manners, this disclosure contemplates forming any suitable edges 558 in any suitable manner.

The social graph 538 may further comprise a plurality of product nodes. Product nodes may represent particular products that may be associated with a particular business. A business may provide a product catalog to a consumer-to-business service and the consumer-to-business service may therefore represent each of the products within the product in the social graph 538 with each product being in a distinct product node. A product node may comprise information relating to the product, such as pricing information, descriptive information, manufacturer information, availability information, and other relevant information. For example, each of the items on a menu for a restaurant may be represented within the social graph 538 with a product node describing each of the items. A product node may be linked by an edge to the business providing the product. Where multiple businesses provide a product, each business may have a distinct product node associated with its providing of the product or may each link to the same product node. A product node may be linked by an edge to each user that has purchased, rated, owns, recommended, or viewed the product, with the edge describing the nature of the relationship (e.g., purchased, rated, owns, recommended, viewed, or other relationship). Each of the product nodes may be associated with a graph id and an associated merchant id by virtue of the linked merchant business. Products available from a business may therefore be communicated to a user by retrieving the available product nodes linked to the user node for the business within the social graph 538. The information for a product node may be manipulated by the social-networking system as a product object that encapsulates information regarding the referenced product.

As such, the social graph 538 may be used to infer shared interests, shared experiences, or other shared or common attributes of two or more users of a social-networking system. For instance, two or more users each having an edge to a common business, product, media item, institution, or other entity represented in the social graph 538 may indicate a shared relationship with that entity, which may be used to suggest customization of a use of a social-networking system, including a messaging system, for one or more users.

The embodiments described above may be performed by a messaging architecture, an example of which is next described with reference to FIG. 6.

Messaging Architecture

FIG. 6 illustrates an embodiment of a plurality of servers implementing various functions of a messaging service 600. It will be appreciated that different distributions of work and functions may be used in various embodiments of a messaging service 600.

The messaging service 600 may comprise a domain name front end 602. The domain name front end 602 may be assigned one or more domain names associated with the messaging service 600 in a domain name system (DNS). The domain name front end 602 may receive incoming connections and distribute the connections to servers providing various messaging services.

The messaging service 602 may comprise one or more chat servers 604. The chat servers 604 may comprise front-end servers for receiving and transmitting user-to-user messaging updates such as chat messages. Incoming connections may be assigned to the chat servers 604 by the domain name front end 602 based on workload balancing.

The messaging service 600 may comprise backend servers 608. The backend servers 608 may perform specialized tasks in the support of the chat operations of the front-end chat servers 604. A plurality of different types of backend servers 608 may be used. It will be appreciated that the assignment of types of tasks to different backend serves 608 may vary in different embodiments. In some embodiments some of the back-end services provided by dedicated servers may be combined onto a single server or a set of servers each performing multiple tasks divided between different servers in the embodiment described herein. Similarly, in some embodiments tasks of some of dedicated back-end servers described herein may be divided between different servers of different server groups.

The messaging service 600 may comprise one or more offline storage servers 610. The one or more offline storage servers 610 may store messaging content for currently-offline messaging clients in hold for when the messaging clients reconnect.

The messaging service 600 may comprise one or more sessions servers 612. The one or more session servers 612 may maintain session state of connected messaging clients.

The messaging service 600 may comprise one or more presence servers 614. The one or more presence servers 614 may maintain presence information for the messaging service 600. Presence information may correspond to user-specific information indicating whether or not a given user has an online messaging client and is available for chatting, has an online messaging client but is currently away from it, does not have an online messaging client, and any other presence state.

The messaging service 600 may comprise one or more push storage servers 616. The one or more push storage servers 616 may cache push requests and transmit the push requests to messaging clients. Push requests may be used to wake messaging clients, to notify messaging clients that a messaging update is available, and to otherwise perform server-side-driven interactions with messaging clients.

The messaging service 600 may comprise one or more group servers 618. The one or more group servers 618 may maintain lists of groups, add users to groups, remove users from groups, and perform the reception, caching, and forwarding of group chat messages.

The messaging service 600 may comprise one or more block list servers 620. The one or more block list servers 620 may maintain user-specific block lists, the user-specific incoming-block lists indicating for each user the one or more other users that are forbidden from transmitting messages to that user. Alternatively or additionally, the one or more block list servers 620 may maintain user-specific outgoing-block lists indicating for each user the one or more other users that that user is forbidden from transmitting messages to. It will be appreciated that incoming-block lists and outgoing-block lists may be stored in combination in, for example, a database, with the incoming-block lists and outgoing-block lists representing different views of a same repository of block information.

The messaging service 600 may comprise one or more last seen information servers 622. The one or more last seen information servers 622 may receive, store, and maintain information indicating the last seen location, status, messaging client, and other elements of a user's last seen connection to the messaging service 600.

The messaging service 600 may comprise one or more key servers 624. The one or more key servers may host public keys for public/private key encrypted communication.

The messaging service 600 may comprise one or more profile photo servers 626. The one or more profile photo servers 626 may store and make available for retrieval profile photos for the plurality of users of the messaging service 600.

The messaging service 600 may comprise one or more spam logging servers 628. The one or more spam logging servers 628 may log known and suspected spam (e.g., unwanted messages, particularly those of a promotional nature). The one or more spam logging servers 628 may be operative to analyze messages to determine whether they are spam and to perform punitive measures, in some embodiments, against suspected spammers (users that send spam messages).

The messaging service 600 may comprise one or more statistics servers 630. The one or more statistics servers may compile and store statistics information related to the operation of the messaging service 600 and the behavior of the users of the messaging service 600.

The messaging service 600 may comprise one or more web servers 632. The one or more web servers 632 may engage in hypertext transport protocol (HTTP) and hypertext transport protocol secure (HTTPS) connections with web browsers.

The messaging service 600 may comprise one or more chat activity monitoring servers 634. The one or more chat activity monitoring servers 634 may monitor the chats of users to determine unauthorized or discouraged behavior by the users of the messaging service 600. The one or more chat activity monitoring servers 634 may work in cooperation with the spam logging servers 628 and block list servers 620, with the one or more chat activity monitoring servers 634 identifying spam or other discouraged behavior and providing spam information to the spam logging servers 628 and blocking information, where appropriate to the block list servers 620.

The messaging service 600 may comprise one or more sync servers 636. The one or more sync servers 636 may sync the messaging system 500 with contact information from a messaging client, such as an address book on a mobile phone, to determine contacts for a user in the messaging service 600.

The messaging service 600 may comprise one or more multimedia servers 638. The one or more multimedia servers may store multimedia (e.g., images, video, audio) in transit between messaging clients, multimedia cached for offline endpoints, and may perform transcoding of multimedia.

The messaging service 600 may comprise one or more payment servers 640. The one or more payment servers 640 may process payments from users. The one or more payment servers 640 may connect to external third-party servers for the performance of payments.

The messaging service 600 may comprise one or more registration servers 642. The one or more registration servers 642 may register new users of the messaging service 600.

The messaging service 600 may comprise one or more voice relay servers 644. The one or more voice relay servers 644 may relay voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) voice communication between messaging clients for the performance of VoIP calls.

The above-described methods may be embodied as instructions on a computer readable medium or as part of a computing architecture. FIG. 7 illustrates an embodiment of an exemplary computing architecture 700 suitable for implementing various embodiments as previously described. In one embodiment, the computing architecture 700 may comprise or be implemented as part of an electronic device, such as a computer 701. The embodiments are not limited in this context.

As used in this application, the terms “system” and “component” are intended to refer to a computer-related entity, either hardware, a combination of hardware and software, software, or software in execution, examples of which are provided by the exemplary computing architecture 700. For example, a component can be, but is not limited to being, a process running on a processor, a processor, a hard disk drive, multiple storage drives (of optical and/or magnetic storage medium), an object, an executable, a thread of execution, a program, and/or a computer. By way of illustration, both an application running on a server and the server can be a component. One or more components can reside within a process and/or thread of execution, and a component can be localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or more computers. Further, components may be communicatively coupled to each other by various types of communications media to coordinate operations. The coordination may involve the uni-directional or bi-directional exchange of information. For instance, the components may communicate information in the form of signals communicated over the communications media. The information can be implemented as signals allocated to various signal lines. In such allocations, each message is a signal. Further embodiments, however, may alternatively employ data messages. Such data messages may be sent across various connections. Exemplary connections include parallel interfaces, serial interfaces, and bus interfaces.

The computing architecture 700 includes various common computing elements, such as one or more processors, multi-core processors, co-processors, memory units, chipsets, controllers, peripherals, interfaces, oscillators, timing devices, video cards, audio cards, multimedia input/output (I/O) components, power supplies, and so forth. The embodiments, however, are not limited to implementation by the computing architecture 700.

As shown in FIG. 7, the computing architecture 700 comprises a processing unit 702, a system memory 704 and a system bus 706. The processing unit 702 can be any of various commercially available processors, including without limitation an AMD® Athlon®, Duron® and Opteron® processors; ARM® application, embedded and secure processors; IBM® and Motorola® DragonBall® and PowerPC® processors; IBM and Sony® Cell processors; Intel® Celeron®, Core (2) Duo®, Itanium®, Pentium®, Xeon®, and XScale® processors; and similar processors. Dual microprocessors, multi-core processors, and other multi-processor architectures may also be employed as the processing unit 702.

The system bus 706 provides an interface for system components including, but not limited to, the system memory 704 to the processing unit 702. The system bus 706 can be any of several types of bus structure that may further interconnect to a memory bus (with or without a memory controller), a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety of commercially available bus architectures. Interface adapters may connect to the system bus 706 via a slot architecture. Example slot architectures may include without limitation Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP), Card Bus, (Extended) Industry Standard Architecture ((E)ISA), Micro Channel Architecture (MCA), NuBus, Peripheral Component Interconnect (Extended) (PCI(X)), PCI Express, Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA), and the like.

The computing architecture 700 may comprise or implement various articles of manufacture. An article of manufacture may comprise a computer-readable storage medium to store logic. Examples of a computer-readable storage medium may include any tangible media capable of storing electronic data, including volatile memory or non-volatile memory, removable or non-removable memory, erasable or non-erasable memory, writeable or re-writeable memory, and so forth. Examples of logic may include executable computer program instructions implemented using any suitable type of code, such as source code, compiled code, interpreted code, executable code, static code, dynamic code, object-oriented code, visual code, and the like. Embodiments may also be at least partly implemented as instructions contained in or on a non-transitory computer-readable medium, which may be read and executed by one or more processors to enable performance of the operations described herein.

The system memory 704 may include various types of computer-readable storage media in the form of one or more higher speed memory units, such as read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), Double-Data-Rate DRAM (DDRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), static RAM (SRAM), programmable ROM (PROM), erasable programmable ROM (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), flash memory, polymer memory such as ferroelectric polymer memory, ovonic memory, phase change or ferroelectric memory, silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon (SONOS) memory, magnetic or optical cards, an array of devices such as Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) drives, solid state memory devices (e.g., USB memory, solid state drives (SSD) and any other type of storage media suitable for storing information. In the illustrated embodiment shown in FIG. 7, the system memory 704 can include non-volatile memory 708 and/or volatile memory 710. A basic input/output system (BIOS) can be stored in the non-volatile memory 708.

The computing architecture 700 may include various types of computer-readable storage media in the form of one or more lower speed memory units, including an internal (or external) hard disk drive (HDD) 712, a magnetic floppy disk drive (FDD) 714 to read from or write to a removable magnetic disk 716, and an optical disk drive 718 to read from or write to a removable optical disk 720 (e.g., a CD-ROM or DVD). The HDD 712, FDD 714 and optical disk drive 720 can be connected to the system bus 706 by an HDD interface 722, an FDD interface 724 and an optical drive interface 726, respectively. The HDD interface 722 for external drive implementations can include at least one or both of Universal Serial Bus (USB) and IEEE 694 interface technologies.

The drives and associated computer-readable media provide volatile and/or nonvolatile storage of data, data structures, computer-executable instructions, and so forth. For example, a number of program modules can be stored in the drives and memory units 708, 712, including an operating system 728, one or more application programs 730, other program modules 732, and program data 734. In one embodiment, the one or more application programs 730, other program modules 732, and program data 734 can include, for example, the various applications and/or components of the messaging system 500.

A user can enter commands and information into the computer 701 through one or more wire/wireless input devices, for example, a keyboard 736 and a pointing device, such as a mouse 738. Other input devices may include microphones, infra-red (IR) remote controls, radio-frequency (RF) remote controls, game pads, stylus pens, card readers, dongles, finger print readers, gloves, graphics tablets, joysticks, keyboards, retina readers, touch screens (e.g., capacitive, resistive, etc.), trackballs, trackpads, sensors, styluses, and the like. These and other input devices are often connected to the processing unit 702 through an input device interface 740 that is coupled to the system bus 706, but can be connected by other interfaces such as a parallel port, IEEE 694 serial port, a game port, a USB port, an IR interface, and so forth.

A monitor 742 or other type of display device is also connected to the system bus 706 via an interface, such as a video adaptor 744. The monitor 742 may be internal or external to the computer 701. In addition to the monitor 742, a computer typically includes other peripheral output devices, such as speakers, printers, and so forth.

The computer 701 may operate in a networked environment using logical connections via wire and/or wireless communications to one or more remote computers, such as a remote computer 744. The remote computer 744 can be a workstation, a server computer, a router, a personal computer, portable computer, microprocessor-based entertainment appliance, a peer device or other common network node, and typically includes many or all of the elements described relative to the computer 701, although, for purposes of brevity, only a memory/storage device 746 is illustrated. The logical connections depicted include wire/wireless connectivity to a local area network (LAN) 748 and/or larger networks, for example, a wide area network (WAN) 750. Such LAN and WAN networking environments are commonplace in offices and companies, and facilitate enterprise-wide computer networks, such as intranets, all of which may connect to a global communications network, for example, the Internet.

When used in a LAN networking environment, the computer 701 is connected to the LAN 748 through a wire and/or wireless communication network interface or adaptor 752. The adaptor 752 can facilitate wire and/or wireless communications to the LAN 748, which may also include a wireless access point disposed thereon for communicating with the wireless functionality of the adaptor 752.

When used in a WAN networking environment, the computer 701 can include a modem 754, or is connected to a communications server on the WAN 750, or has other means for establishing communications over the WAN 750, such as by way of the Internet. The modem 754, which can be internal or external and a wire and/or wireless device, connects to the system bus 706 via the input device interface 740. In a networked environment, program modules depicted relative to the computer 701, or portions thereof, can be stored in the remote memory/storage device 746. It will be appreciated that the network connections shown are exemplary and other means of establishing a communications link between the computers can be used.

The computer 701 is operable to communicate with wire and wireless devices or entities using the IEEE 802 family of standards, such as wireless devices operatively disposed in wireless communication (e.g., IEEE 802.13 over-the-air modulation techniques). This includes at least Wi-Fi (or Wireless Fidelity), WiMax, and Bluetooth™ wireless technologies, among others. Thus, the communication can be a predefined structure as with a conventional network or simply an ad hoc communication between at least two devices. Wi-Fi networks use radio technologies called IEEE 802.13x (a, b, g, n, etc.) to provide secure, reliable, fast wireless connectivity. A Wi-Fi network can be used to connect computers to each other, to the Internet, and to wire networks (which use IEEE 802.3-related media and functions).

FIG. 8 is a block diagram depicting an exemplary communications architecture 800 suitable for implementing various embodiments as previously described. The communications architecture 800 includes various common communications elements, such as a transmitter, receiver, transceiver, radio, network interface, baseband processor, antenna, amplifiers, filters, power supplies, and so forth. The embodiments, however, are not limited to implementation by the communications architecture 800.

As shown in FIG. 8, the communications architecture 800 includes one or more clients 802 and servers 804. The clients 802 may implement the client device 510. The servers 804 may implement the server device 526. The clients 802 and the servers 804 are operatively connected to one or more respective client data stores 806 and server data stores 808 that can be employed to store information local to the respective clients 802 and servers 804, such as cookies and/or associated contextual information.

The clients 802 and the servers 804 may communicate information between each other using a communication framework 810. The communications framework 810 may implement any well-known communications techniques and protocols. The communications framework 810 may be implemented as a packet-switched network (e.g., public networks such as the Internet, private networks such as an enterprise intranet, and so forth), a circuit-switched network (e.g., the public switched telephone network), or a combination of a packet-switched network and a circuit-switched network (with suitable gateways and translators).

The communications framework 810 may implement various network interfaces arranged to accept, communicate, and connect to a communications network. A network interface may be regarded as a specialized form of an input output interface. Network interfaces may employ connection protocols including without limitation direct connect, Ethernet (e.g., thick, thin, twisted pair 10/100/1000 Base T, and the like), token ring, wireless network interfaces, cellular network interfaces, IEEE 802.8a-x network interfaces, IEEE 802.16 network interfaces, IEEE 802.20 network interfaces, and the like. Further, multiple network interfaces may be used to engage with various communications network types. For example, multiple network interfaces may be employed to allow for the communication over broadcast, multicast, and unicast networks. Should processing requirements dictate a greater amount speed and capacity, distributed network controller architectures may similarly be employed to pool, load balance, and otherwise increase the communicative bandwidth required by clients 802 and the servers 804. A communications network may be any one and the combination of wired and/or wireless networks including without limitation a direct interconnection, a secured custom connection, a private network (e.g., an enterprise intranet), a public network (e.g., the Internet), a Personal Area Network (PAN), a Local Area Network (LAN), a Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), an Operating Missions as Nodes on the Internet (OMNI), a Wide Area Network (WAN), a wireless network, a cellular network, and other communications networks.

FIG. 9 illustrates an embodiment of a device 900 for use in a multicarrier OFDM system, such as the messaging system 500. The device 900 may implement, for example, software components 902 as described with reference to the messaging component logic 600, the intent determination logic 700, and the group selection logic 800. The device 900 may also implement a logic circuit 904. The logic circuit 904 may include physical circuits to perform operations described for the messaging system 600. As shown in FIG. 9, device 900 may include a radio interface 906, baseband circuitry 908, and a computing platform 910, although embodiments are not limited to this configuration.

The device 900 may implement some or all of the structure and/or operations for the messaging system 500 and/or logic circuit 904 in a single computing entity, such as entirely within a single device. Alternatively, the device 900 may distribute portions of the structure and/or operations for the messaging system 600 and/or logic circuit 904 across multiple computing entities using a distributed system architecture, such as a client-server architecture, a 3-tier architecture, an N-tier architecture, a tightly-coupled or clustered architecture, a peer-to-peer architecture, a master-slave architecture, a shared database architecture, and other types of distributed systems. The embodiments are not limited in this context.

In one embodiment, the radio interface 906 may include a component or combination of components adapted for transmitting and/or receiving single carrier or multi-carrier modulated signals (e.g., including complementary code keying (CCK) and/or orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols) although the embodiments are not limited to any specific over-the-air interface or modulation scheme. The radio interface 906 may include, for example, a receiver 912, a transmitter 914 and/or a frequency synthesizer 916. The radio interface 906 may include bias controls, a crystal oscillator and/or one or more antennas 918. In another embodiment, the radio interface 906 may use external voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs), surface acoustic wave filters, intermediate frequency (IF) filters and/or RF filters, as desired. Due to the variety of potential RF interface designs an expansive description thereof is omitted.

The baseband circuitry 908 may communicate with the radio interface 906 to process receive and/or transmit signals and may include, for example, an analog-to-digital converter 920 for down converting received signals, and a digital-to-analog converter 922 for up-converting signals for transmission. Further, the baseband circuitry 908 may include a baseband or physical layer (PHY) processing circuit 924 for PHY link layer processing of respective receive/transmit signals. The baseband circuitry 908 may include, for example, a processing circuit 926 for medium access control (MAC)/data link layer processing. The baseband circuitry 908 may include a memory controller 928 for communicating with the processing circuit 926 and/or a computing platform 910, for example, via one or more interfaces 930.

In some embodiments, the PHY processing circuit 924 may include a frame construction and/or detection module, in combination with additional circuitry such as a buffer memory, to construct and/or deconstruct communication frames, such as radio frames. Alternatively or in addition, the MAC processing circuit 926 may share processing for certain of these functions or perform these processes independent of the PHY processing circuit 924. In some embodiments, MAC and PHY processing may be integrated into a single circuit.

The computing platform 910 may provide computing functionality for the device 900. As shown, the computing platform 910 may include a processing component 932. In addition to, or alternatively of, the baseband circuitry 908, the device 900 may execute processing operations or logic for the messaging system 500 and logic circuit 904 using the processing component 932. The processing component 932 (and/or the PHY 924 and/or MAC 926) may comprise various hardware elements, software elements, or a combination of both. Examples of hardware elements may include devices, logic devices, components, processors, microprocessors, circuits, processor circuits, circuit elements (e.g., transistors, resistors, capacitors, inductors, and so forth), integrated circuits, application specific integrated circuits (ASIC), programmable logic devices (PLD), digital signal processors (DSP), field programmable gate array (FPGA), memory units, logic gates, registers, semiconductor device, chips, microchips, chip sets, and so forth. Examples of software elements may include software components, programs, applications, computer programs, application programs, system programs, software development programs, machine programs, operating system software, middleware, firmware, software modules, routines, subroutines, functions, methods, procedures, software interfaces, application program interfaces (API), instruction sets, computing code, computer code, code segments, computer code segments, words, values, symbols, or any combination thereof. Determining whether an embodiment is implemented using hardware elements and/or software elements may vary in accordance with any number of factors, such as desired computational rate, power levels, heat tolerances, processing cycle budget, input data rates, output data rates, memory resources, data bus speeds and other design or performance constraints, as desired for a given implementation.

The computing platform 910 may further include other platform components 934. Other platform components 934 include common computing elements, such as one or more processors, multi-core processors, co-processors, memory units, chipsets, controllers, peripherals, interfaces, oscillators, timing devices, video cards, audio cards, multimedia input/output (I/O) components (e.g., digital displays), power supplies, and so forth. Examples of memory units may include without limitation various types of computer readable and machine readable storage media in the form of one or more higher speed memory units, such as read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), Double-Data-Rate DRAM (DDRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), static RAM (SRAM), programmable ROM (PROM), erasable programmable ROM (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), flash memory, polymer memory such as ferroelectric polymer memory, ovonic memory, phase change or ferroelectric memory, silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon (SONOS) memory, magnetic or optical cards, an array of devices such as Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) drives, solid state memory devices (e.g., USB memory, solid state drives (SSD) and any other type of storage media suitable for storing information.

The device 900 may be, for example, an ultra-mobile device, a mobile device, a fixed device, a machine-to-machine (M2M) device, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile computing device, a smart phone, a telephone, a digital telephone, a cellular telephone, user equipment, eBook readers, a handset, a one-way pager, a two-way pager, a messaging device, a computer, a personal computer (PC), a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a notebook computer, a netbook computer, a handheld computer, a tablet computer, a server, a server array or server farm, a web server, a network server, an Internet server, a work station, a mini-computer, a main frame computer, a supercomputer, a network appliance, a web appliance, a distributed computing system, multiprocessor systems, processor-based systems, consumer electronics, programmable consumer electronics, game devices, television, digital television, set top box, wireless access point, base station, node B, evolved node B (eNB), subscriber station, mobile subscriber center, radio network controller, router, hub, gateway, bridge, switch, machine, or combination thereof. Accordingly, functions and/or specific configurations of the device 900 described herein, may be included or omitted in various embodiments of the device 900, as suitably desired. In some embodiments, the device 900 may be configured to be compatible with protocols and frequencies associated one or more of the 3GPP LTE Specifications and/or IEEE 1402.16 Standards for WMANs, and/or other broadband wireless networks, cited herein, although the embodiments are not limited in this respect.

Embodiments of device 900 may be implemented using single input single output (SISO) architectures. However, certain implementations may include multiple antennas (e.g., antennas 918) for transmission and/or reception using adaptive antenna techniques for beamforming or spatial division multiple access (SDMA) and/or using MIMO communication techniques.

The components and features of the device 900 may be implemented using any combination of discrete circuitry, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), logic gates and/or single chip architectures. Further, the features of the device 900 may be implemented using microcontrollers, programmable logic arrays and/or microprocessors or any combination of the foregoing where suitably appropriate. It is noted that hardware, firmware and/or software elements may be collectively or individually referred to herein as “logic” or “circuit.”

It will be appreciated that the exemplary device 900 shown in the block diagram of FIG. 9 may represent one functionally descriptive example of many potential implementations. Accordingly, division, omission or inclusion of block functions depicted in the accompanying figures does not infer that the hardware components, circuits, software and/or elements for implementing these functions would be necessarily be divided, omitted, or included in embodiments.

At least one computer-readable storage medium 936 may include instructions that, when executed, cause a system to perform any of the computer-implemented methods described herein.

General Notes on Terminology

Some embodiments may be described using the expression “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” along with their derivatives. These terms mean that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Moreover, unless otherwise noted the features described above are recognized to be usable together in any combination. Thus, any features discussed separately may be employed in combination with each other unless it is noted that the features are incompatible with each other.

With general reference to notations and nomenclature used herein, the detailed descriptions herein may be presented in terms of program procedures executed on a computer or network of computers. These procedural descriptions and representations are used by those skilled in the art to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art.

A procedure is here, and generally, conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of operations leading to a desired result. These operations are those requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical, magnetic or optical signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It proves convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers, or the like. It should be noted, however, that all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to those quantities.

Further, the manipulations performed are often referred to in terms, such as adding or comparing, which are commonly associated with mental operations performed by a human operator. No such capability of a human operator is necessary, or desirable in most cases, in any of the operations described herein, which form part of one or more embodiments. Rather, the operations are machine operations. Useful machines for performing operations of various embodiments include general purpose digital computers or similar devices.

Some embodiments may be described using the expression “coupled” and “connected” along with their derivatives. These terms are not necessarily intended as synonyms for each other. For example, some embodiments may be described using the terms “connected” and/or “coupled” to indicate that two or more elements are in direct physical or electrical contact with each other. The term “coupled,” however, may also mean that two or more elements are not in direct contact with each other, but yet still co-operate or interact with each other.

Various embodiments also relate to apparatus or systems for performing these operations. This apparatus may be specially constructed for the required purpose or it may comprise a general purpose computer as selectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored in the computer. The procedures presented herein are not inherently related to a particular computer or other apparatus. Various general purpose machines may be used with programs written in accordance with the teachings herein, or it may prove convenient to construct more specialized apparatus to perform the required method steps. The required structure for a variety of these machines will appear from the description given.

It is emphasized that the Abstract of the Disclosure is provided to allow a reader to quickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. In addition, in the foregoing Detailed Description, it can be seen that various features are grouped together in a single embodiment for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed embodiments require more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus the following claims are hereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment. In the appended claims, the terms “including” and “in which” are used as the plain-English equivalents of the respective terms “comprising” and “wherein,” respectively. Moreover, the terms “first,” “second,” “third,” and so forth, are used merely as labels, and are not intended to impose numerical requirements on their objects.

What has been described above includes examples of the disclosed architecture. It is, of course, not possible to describe every conceivable combination of components and/or methodologies, but one of ordinary skill in the art may recognize that many further combinations and permutations are possible. Accordingly, the novel architecture is intended to embrace all such alterations, modifications and variations that fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. 

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising: receiving a video conversation at a server from a client device, the video conversation comprising original audio data carried on an audio channel and one or more original video frames carried on a video channel, the video conversation received from a first participant in the video conversation; identifying a media effect to be applied to the video conversation, the media effect comprising an audible or graphical modification configured to be automatically applied to change the original audio data or the one or more original video frames received from the first participant, the media effect being received from a promoter; generating an instruction for a client device associated with the first participant in the video conversation to cause the device to automatically present the media effect, wherein information associated with the media effect is transmitted between the server and the device on a control channel distinct from the audio channel the video channel; and incrementing an advertising counter associated with the promoter in response to generating the instruction.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving the media effect at the server from a device associated with the promoter.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising calculating a fee to be charged to the promoter based on a value of the advertising counter.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein automatically presenting the media effect comprises displaying a recommendation dialog on the display, the recommendation dialog including the media effect, and further comprising: receiving a selection of a selected media effect from the recommendation dialog; and presenting the selected media effect at a client device associated with a second participant in the video conversation.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the media effect is retrieved from a library of media effects, the library comprising multiple media effects associated with a single style, the multiple media effects associated with different emotional states, the identified media effect being a media effect associated with the single style corresponding to the matched emotional state.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein automatically presenting the media effect comprises: fading in the media effect on the display; detecting a cancellation instruction; and refraining from presenting the media effect on a display associated with a second participant in the video conversation.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the media effect alters a visual appearance of two or more participants in the video conversation in a coordinated manner.
 8. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions configured to cause one or more processors to: receive a video conversation at a server from a client device, the video conversation comprising original audio data carried on an audio channel and one or more original video frames carried on a video channel, the video conversation received from a first participant in the video conversation; identify a media effect to be applied to the video conversation, the media effect comprising an audible or graphical modification configured to be automatically applied to change the original audio data or the one or more original video frames received from the first participant, the media effect being received from a promoter; generate an instruction for a client device associated with the first participant in the video conversation to cause the device to automatically present the media effect, wherein information associated with the media effect is transmitted between the server and the device on a control channel distinct from the audio channel the video channel; and increment an advertising counter associated with the promoter in response to generating the instruction.
 9. The medium of claim 8, further storing instructions for receiving the media effect at the server from a device associated with the promoter.
 10. The medium of claim 8, further storing instructions for calculating a fee to be charged to the promoter based on a value of the advertising counter.
 11. The medium of claim 8, wherein automatically presenting the media effect comprises displaying a recommendation dialog on the display, the recommendation dialog including the media effect, and further comprising: receiving a selection of a selected media effect from the recommendation dialog; and presenting the selected media effect at a client device associated with a second participant in the video conversation.
 12. The medium of claim 8, wherein the media effect is retrieved from a library of media effects, the library comprising multiple media effects associated with a single style, the multiple media effects associated with different emotional states, the identified media effect being a media effect associated with the single style corresponding to the matched emotional state.
 13. The medium of claim 8, wherein automatically presenting the media effect comprises: fading in the media effect on the display; detecting a cancellation instruction; and refraining from presenting the media effect on a display associated with a second participant in the video conversation.
 14. The medium of claim 8, wherein the media effect alters a visual appearance of two or more participants in the video conversation in a coordinated manner.
 15. An apparatus comprising: a non-transitory computer readable medium configured to store instructions for facilitating a video conversation; and a processor configured to execute the instructions, the instructions configured to cause the processor to: receive a video conversation at a server from a client device, the video conversation comprising original audio data carried on an audio channel and one or more original video frames carried on a video channel, the video conversation received from a first participant in the video conversation; identify a media effect to be applied to the video conversation, the media effect comprising an audible or graphical modification configured to be automatically applied to change the original audio data or the one or more original video frames received from the first participant, the media effect being received from a promoter; generate an instruction for a client device associated with the first participant in the video conversation to cause the device to automatically present the media effect, wherein information associated with the media effect is transmitted between the server and the device on a control channel distinct from the audio channel the video channel; and increment an advertising counter associated with the promoter in response to generating the instruction.
 16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the processor is further configured to receive the media effect at the server from a device associated with the promoter.
 17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the processor is further configured to calculate a fee to be charged to the promoter based on a value of the advertising counter.
 18. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein automatically presenting the media effect comprises displaying a recommendation dialog on the display, the recommendation dialog including the media effect, and further comprising: receiving a selection of a selected media effect from the recommendation dialog; and presenting the selected media effect at a client device associated with a second participant in the video conversation.
 19. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the media effect is retrieved from a library of media effects, the library comprising multiple media effects associated with a single style, the multiple media effects associated with different emotional states, the identified media effect being a media effect associated with the single style corresponding to the matched emotional state.
 20. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein automatically presenting the media effect comprises: fading in the media effect on the display; detecting a cancellation instruction; and refraining from presenting the media effect on a display associated with a second participant in the video conversation. 